Today, various types of natural stone such as marble or granite have been used in construction. Especially, natural stone is advantageous in that it is a nature-friendly material which can provide non-uniform natural beauty. Thus, in order to decorate a building luxuriously, natural stone has been commonly used as a material for finishing visible regions, that is, the outer wall, inner wall, or floor of the building.
Generally, construction is performed using natural stone manufactured in the form of a plate. However, natural stone is weak in compressive strength, impact strength and tensile strength. Particularly, natural stone in the form of a plate is very weak to impact, so that a plate having a thickness of from 10 mm to 30 mm, which may vary depending on the kind of natural stone, is generally used in consideration of the danger of damage resulting from the act of construction or in the use thereof.
However, although a thickness of from 10 mm to 30 mm is relatively thin, the density of natural stone is very high, so that a natural stone plate has a considerably heavy weight. The considerably heavy weight may impose a structural burden on a building. Thus, if a building is designed to be finished using natural stone, the load imparted thereby must be additionally considered at the design stage and be applied to the structural design, in addition to increasing the cost of foundation work.
Further, natural stone plates must be treated carefully at times of construction or conveyance. During the construction work, workers must pay careful attention to arrange plates in an orderly manner in vertical and horizontal directions, so that the construction is complicated and thus construction cost is considerable.
Because of the cost burden, natural stone is not used for general houses, but is mainly used for luxurious houses entailing high building costs.